The Snip.it service is shutting down, according to a note posted on the website. That pragmatic decision will sadden some Snip.it users, but it suggests that Yahoo was interested in Snip.it more for its employees than its product.

While it's easy to see how Snip.it's expertise in design and user interfaces might serve to refresh aging Yahoo products like, say, Yahoo Answers, we have a different theory about why Yahoo bought it—and that's to get the services of Snip.it CEO Ramy Adeeb.

Adeeb has a particularly interesting background. Before starting Snip.it, Adeeb worked at Khosla Ventures, where he helped make investments in companies like GroupMe and Square. And before that, he worked at Tellme, an enterprise startup acquired by Microsoft for $800 million. As such, he has powerful connections with a host of startups backed by Khosla or launched by Tellme alumni.

Mayer is an angel investor in Square, which suggests that the two might have similarly keen eyes for the next wave of design-oriented mobile apps.

After getting his team situated at Yahoo, we think Adeeb might move into a corporate-development role, leading Yahoo's dealmaking with startups to assemble the talented teams with which Mayer hopes to stage a mobile-focused turnaround.